Travel

Key Takeaways from Jordi Alexander's Interview with Thiccy

Career Trajectory
- Started with competitive chess and bridge in his youth, which built his strategic thinking foundation then professional poker
- Briefly worked at a bank after graduation before transitioning to full-time poker during the 2008 financial crisis
- Moved to algorithmic trading at HFT firms (Getco, then Tower)
- Entered crypto around 2016, gradually increasing his involvement until committing fully in 2020
- Founded Selini Capital, a crypto trading firm with 100% CAGR over 13 years

Philosophy on Learning and Growth
- Emphasises learning through "osmosis" - being around top performers
- Foundational understanding > shortcuts
- Intentionally caps annual growth to maintain psychological balance
- Discovered his learning capacity expanded in his 40s rather than diminishing

Trading Approach
- Balances systematic and discretionary trading strategies
- Excels at understanding market microstructure and flow
- Uses risk/reward balancing as his core trading principle
- Adds to positions gradually until reaching a predetermined maximum size
- Views understanding probability distributions as a key skill
- Combines technical expertise with market intuition

Psychological Insights
- Emotional resilience in trading is important 
- Need to manage ego for long-term success
- Many successful traders still struggle with imposter syndrome
- Describes trading as therapy because "you have to be calibrated with how the world actually is"
- Values sustainable growth over rapid gains to maintain psychological wellbeing

🕵️🕵️CRYPTO ERA 👽🚀🚀🔥

Views on Crypto Markets
- Recognizes patterns of market cycles and investor behavior repeating in crypto
- Sees parallels between poker skills and crypto trading (especially tilt management)
- Expects AI to significantly impact crypto's future
- Notes that market making and venture investing have converged in crypto
- Believes his specialized knowledge makes him somewhat resilient to AI disruption